9th Meeting of CORAL

Latin American Regional Council of Biomedical Engineering

The 9th CORAL meeting took place in Mazatlan, Mexico, in November 1998, during the 1st Latin American Conference on Biomedical Engineering. The member countries of CORAL who were present were: Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Cuba, Mexico, Peru and Venezuela. The members of the Board were Adriana Velázquez, from Mexico (President) and Jorge Monzon, from Argentina (Vice-President). The Treasurer and Secretary were not able to attend the meeting. The meeting took place in two sessions held on the afternoon of the 10th and the morning of November 14th, lasting a total of 12 hours with 25 participants. The participants of the meeting are listed below.

Country reports

  • In Argentina two new universities now offer degrees in Biomedical Engineering. One is public, San Juan, and one private, Favaloro.
  • Brazil has 379 members in the Society, and has organised five academic events (conferences, workshops and symposia). Their next national conference will take place in September or October 2000 in Florianópolis.
  • In Cuba there are now three universities offering degrees in bioengineering, with graduate programs and PhDs in Electromedicine. The activities in the Cuban Society have increased and cover the whole country.
  • In Mexico the board in 1996-97 included Miguel Cadena as President and Adriana Velazquez as Vice-President. In 1998-99, Oscar Infante was President and Oscar Yañez was Vice President. The new board was elected in December 1999. New design ideas and concepts for the Mexican Journal are being carried out by the editor E. Sacristán. The IEEE-EMBS with Angel Zapata and SOMIB have been working together with very good results. In April 1998 a new board for IEEE EMBS was elected with J. Azpiroz as Vice-President (President Elect). The main job in 1997-98 was to chair the First Latin American Conference in November 1998
  • Peru: The Peruvian Association of Biomedical Engineering was established two years ago. There is one university offering a biomedical engineering program. There is a need for international support and the spread of knowledge. CORAL X was held in TUMI, in Lima, Peru, in September 1999.
  • Venezuela has two universities with a graduate degree in hospital management including courses in clinical engineering. The national health services were recently decentralised to the 24 states, which are now looking for support in the universities. In the last five years a lot of positive changes have occurred concerning biomedical and clinical engineering.
  • Costa Rica (invited): The Association of Professionals in Medical Equipment wants to become a member of CORAL. There is a program in electromedicine engineering at the Universidad Latina de Costa Rica.
  • Chile (invited) The Chilean Society of Hospital Engineers started three years ago. It has 35 engineer members and is chaired by Mr Ribera. There is GTZ project running in Temuco. The society will start documentation to apply for membership in CORAL.

Meeting highlights

Adriana Velazquez, CORAL President, said it was a great honour and also a great responsibility for Mexico to be the organiser of the 1st Latin American Conference chaired by CORAL. She recognised the important support received by the two mother organisations of CORAL. IFMBE supported the conference with 3,000 USD to have simultaneous translation during the whole conference. IEEE-EMBS supported with 1,500 USD to bring two main speakers (Dr Metin Akay and Dr Javier Rosell). Additionally, two IFMBE officers, Mladen Poluta and Peter Heimann, participated in the conference. Furthermore, there was a large and important support from PAHO, through Antonio Hernández, who supported the participation of important members of the Board of the ACCE, and also from the Medical Devices Office from Canada, and from ECRI. And finally from WHO, from Andrei Issakov and from many others who participated.

Both Mladen Poluta and Fernando Infantossi, as the IFMBE-CORAL liaison officer, encouraged CORAL members and the societies members to participate in the CHICAGO 2000 World Congress and to review the information on the web. They also invited attendants to submit information on their activities to the editor of the IFMBE newsletter, Dr Saranummi. Mladen Poluta gave information on the IFMBE policies on regional conferences and en-couraged people to submit ideas to the IFMBE, to the IFMBE working groups and to the developing countries committee. PAHO, through Antonio Hernandez, offered support to CORAL, through the regional offices, and also via the web, for instance in the translation of MONITOR, which is an important ECRI publication. GTZ, via Luis Mosqueira, offered to work with engineers in Salvador and Chile to encourage them to be members of CORAL, and to work together.

Resolutions of the meeting

  • The Latin American Conferences would be held one year after the World Conference, every three years: 1998, 2001, 2004, etc.
  • The term of the CORAL Board used to be two years. From now on it will be three years, so that each Board is responsible for organising one conference. • A vote to elect the Vice-President was held. The two candidates were Fernando Infantossi (Brazil) and Ernesto Rodriguez Denis (Cuba), and the results were 7 to 6 in favour of F.Infantossi.
  • The new Board elected for 1999 to 2001 comprises: Jorge Monzon (Argentina) as President, Fernando Infantossi (Brazil) as Vice-President and Rodrigo Mijares (Venezuela) as Secretary-Treasurer. The two other members are from Mexico and Peru.
  • The vote to elect the site for the 2nd Latin American Conference was between Cuba and Argentina. It was won by Cuba, which will be the site for 2001.
  • Peru was voted as the site for the 10th CORAL meeting. This would take place in September 1999, at the TUMI conference in Lima.
  • Costa Rica was accepted as a new member of CORAL.
  • CORAL participation in Chicago 2000 was strongly recommended.
  • All CORAL country members who participated in CORAL IX were given 600 USD from the CORAL account as a partial payment of their travelling expenses. Adriana Velazquez issued a receipt to be signed by each one. Old debts were reimbursed, and the 50 USD annual membership dues were received from all so that at the end of the conference there were no debts with respect to either CORAL or IFMBE.

Official representatives of the member countries

Jorge Monzon - IEEE-EMBS Argentina, and for Region 9

Ricardo Armentano - Argentinian Society (SABI)

Fernando Infantosi - Brazilian Society of Biomedical Engineers

Renato García - IEEE – EMBS Brazil

Susana Llanusa - Cuban Societ

Oscar Infante - Mexican Society (SOMIB)

Angel Zapata - IEEE-EMBS Mexico

Luis Vilcahuamán - Peruvian Society (APIB)

Rodrigo Mijares - Venezuelan Society (SOVIB)

Representatives of invited organizations

Peter Heimann - Chairman of Clinical Engineering Division, IFMBE

Mladen Poluta - IFMBE treasurer

Robert Morris - President of ACCE

Frank Painter - Ex-president of ACCE

Jonathan Gaev - International office of ECRI

Antonio Hernández - PAHO

Luis Mosqueira - GTZ and Chilean Society of Hospital Eng

Kok Swang Tan - Medical Devices, Canada

Jurandir Nadal - Editor of Brazilian Journal

Emilio Sacrtistán - Editor of Mexican Journal

Rodolfo Mata - Costa Rica Latin University

Adriana Velazquez

Email: adrianavb@compuserve.com